TYLER, TEXAS – Courtney Plocheck and JT Smith totaled a combined four extra-base hits to help #4 UT Tyler complete the series sweep over #22 West Texas A&M with a 6-1 win on Saturday afternoon.
 
Plocheck and Smith drove in five UT Tyler runs on four of the five UT Tyler extra-base hits in the game to help the Patriots remain largely in control of a spirited series finale between both teams. Plocheck went 2-for-3 with a double and a triple, while Smith matched that output with a 2-for-3 effort that featured a double and a two-run homer in the bottom of the third.
 
Starter Tatum Goff and relief pitcher Shea O'Leary kept the Lady Buff offense largely in check once again, allowing just a single earned run on a solo homerun in the top of the fifth. Goff moved to a perfect 12-0 on the year with the win after tossing 5.0 complete innings, scattering four hits and striking out three along the way.
 
Plocheck and Smith provided the early run support for Goff in the second and third innings on an RBI double to right for Plocheck in the second, and a two-run homer for Smith in the bottom of the third.
 
West Texas A&M managed their lone run of the afternoon on a solo homer in the fifth to cut the Patriot lead to 3-1, a margin which was quickly extended back out with a three-run bottom of the inning for UT Tyler. Plocheck's second and third RBI of the day made it 5-1 on a two-out triple to centerfield that scored both Caitlin Wells and Audrey Escamilla.
 
Wells joined Plocheck and Smith with a multi-hit effort and got the two-out rally started for the Patriots with a single to rightfield to put runners on first and third for Plocheck. Plocheck delivered with the triple, and then scored on the third straight hit of the inning on Amanda Marek's double to left center.
 
Wells went 2-for-3 with a run scored on an afternoon in which UT Tyler totaled eight hits, five of which went for extra-bases.
 
O'Leary came on in relief for Goff after a single and a wild pitch started off the Lady Buff top of the sixth, and worked out of the jam with a strikeout and a double play to the end inning without a blemish. O'Leary came back out for the seventh and worked around a one-out single to close the books and the series with the 6-1 final in favor of the Patriots.
 
UT Tyler regained possession of first place in the Lone Star Conference standings with the three wins over the previously unbeaten Lady Buffs this weekend. The Patriots sit 10-2 on the year in Lone Star Conference play, and hold the conference winning percentage edge over #25 St. Mary's, who sit 7-2 in LSC play.
 
The Patriots will travel to Odessa, Texas for a midweek Lone Star Conference series at UT Permian Basin on Tuesday and Wednesday.